Energy & Climate Change

Phase out Fossil Fuels (coal, oil, gas)

  • Immediately eliminate all subsidies to the fossil fuel and related industries, including: 
  • oil and gas exploration, drilling, processing, and distribution
  • coal-, oil-, and natural gas-burning energy production
  • internal combustion engine (ICE)-based transportation and energy production
  • petrochemical-based fertilizer and pesticide production
  • petrochemical-based plastics production
  • fossil fuel energy-intensive cement production
  • Increase federal taxation of fossil fuels (“carbon tax”); use proceeds to fund alternatives
  • Immediately halt the approval and construction of new coal and gas-fired power plants
  • Ban the use of fossil fuels for energy, space or water heating in all new home and commercial building construction
  • Halt all new fossil fuel exploration and drilling immediately. Eliminate all extraction by 2035.
  • Close all coal- and oil-fired power plants
  • Eliminate all forms of subsidization of meat production, including subsidies of irrigation, farming and distribution relating to the growth of feedstock
  • Eliminate the escape of greenhouse gasses such as CO2 and methane, VOCs and particulates into the atmosphere from ongoing oil and gas extraction activities
  • Phase out all manufacturing and sales of new internal combustion engines (ICE: gasoline, diesel, and natural gas) for all purposes, including power plants and generators, vehicles (cars, trucks, airplanes, trains, motorcycles and scooters, ships, and go-carts), farming and construction equipment, lawn mowers and other power tools, etc.
  • If necessary, buy back existing ICEs

Fund renewable energy

  • Invest federal money in Research into solar PV, wind, wave, geothermal, and fusion energy generation. Retain co-ownership of all patents generated as a result of government funding. Demand equity stakes in companies resulting from such research. 
  • Require solar PV and storage for all new buildings (residential including multi-tenant, commercial, and industrial)
  • Increase incentives for installation of solar panels and local energy storage (e.g. Tesla PowerWalls) on existing buildings — up to 100% on low-income homes and multi-tenant buildings
  • Fund the use of excess (renewable) energy generation for seawater desalinization and electrolysis
  • Fund reverse-osmosis filtering of seawater into fresh water for drinking and irrigation
  • Fund fuel-cell technology for long-range vehicles such as trucks, trains, and freight ships
  • Incentivize conversion of water-hungry landscapes in arid climates to native and low-water landscapes. Create templates with cost and savings calculations and establish programs to accelerate adoption.
  • Large-scale and distributed wind power generation

Create a New Power Grid

  • Fund an Energy Security Project to design a new grid that is reliable, secure, scalable, affordable, and democratic. This will be highly distributed, with survivable, independently self-sufficient micro-grids.
  • Fund the upgrade of the national power grid for distributed generation and storage
  • Create permanent tax incentives for investment in wind, solar, and other renewable energy sources
  • Increase tax incentives for investment in sustainable energy storage systems
  • Create incentives for investment in technologies that facilitate the management of dynamic, distributed energy generation and demand
  • Incentivize investment in grid security technologies

Invest in research into sustainable building technologies

  • Building insulation
  • Passive solar architecture and building design
  • Solar hot water and space heating
  • Photovoltaic windows, roofs and building surfaces
  • Heat-pump technology using CO2 vs. CFCs
  • Cost-effective energy storage, including battery and gravity-based

Invest in research into sustainable materials

  • Invest in the development of plant-based, backyard-compostable alternatives to plastic in food containers, luggage, automobiles, and other major applications

Invest in sustainable transportation

  • Continue, indefinitely, federal and state incentives to eliminate the production and sale of ICE-based transportation by 2030
  • Ban entirely the production, sale or use of combustion engine-based transportation by 2040
  • Invest in clean, portable technologies suitable for use in individual vehicles
  • Invest in clean, public mass transportation infrastructure

Invest in sustainable agriculture

See separate topical page